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Amtran evaluating bus stop shelter

At a meeting Wednesday, Amtran board member Dick Moran recalled seeing a woman with young children standing in the rain at a bus stop in Pleasant Valley recently — his tone suggesting it was an uncomfortable sight for him.

It turns out, Amtran is in the midst of an evaluation of all 400 bus stops in preparation for targeted improvements designed to make things better for riders, according to General Manager Eric Wolf.

Currently, only 15 stops are equipped with shelters, and there are some in Pleasant Valley where there are not even sidewalks, according to officials.

The evaluation began in July after COVID-19 delays and is about 30 percent complete, Wolf said. It makes use of a two-page checklist that covers issues of safety and access and amenities like benches and shelters, Wolf said.

When the evaluation is done, the organization will merge the results with usage data to determine which shelters need replaced, whether to relocate any of them, whether to add shelters at more locations and whether to add benches and sidewalks, concrete pads or other infrastructure, Wolf said.

There’s no project budget yet, he said.

About half the shelters — the ones with dome-shaped roofs — were installed by Amtran.

They’re the oldest and might need replaced, Wolf said.

The other shelters — the ones with sloping hip roofs — were installed by Lamar Advertising about 10 years ago, then subsequently donated to Amtran, along with $10,000 for maintenance, when they didn’t prove lucrative for ads, Wolf said.

The shelters installed by Lamar are in pretty good shape, Wolf said.

There are only a few stops with unsheltered benches, Wolf said.

The three-sided, clear-walled shelters aren’t cheap, Wolf said.

They need to be wind-resistant and they need to be attached to a concrete base, he said.

If the organization decides to locate shelters at stops where there are no sidewalks, it would need to hire a contractor to provide a base, he said.

Organization employees can bolt shelters to existing concrete, Wolf said.

While standing in the rain waiting for a bus isn’t ideal, riders nowadays can access electronic information on bus arrivals to minimize the wait times, officials noted.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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